


hey, hey somewhere

by lutzaussi



Category: Naruto
Genre: Backstory, M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-23 05:25:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11396226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lutzaussi/pseuds/lutzaussi
Summary: A campfire somehow turns into burning down the woods.Yeah, it was Kakashi's idea.(for the kakairusummer2017 prompt: Campfire)





	hey, hey somewhere

“You were taught how to make fires by Asuma, weren’t you?” Kakashi’s voice is a little despairing, but then again Iruka has been meticulously building a tiny pyramid out of kindling for the past five minutes. It’s just a  _ fire _ for gods’ sake.

Iruka looks at him with something like fond annoyance in his eyes, goes back to his sticks and dried leaves. “You want us to have a fire, yes?” he asks after a few moments.

Maybe it’s better to concede defeat. Kakashi remains silent as Iruka ignites the kindling, and within a couple minutes they do have a nice fire, so he’s done complaining. This was his idea in the first place, and he’s got to live with it. And, anyway, the fish and yams need the fire to cook.

He deals with the food while Iruka feeds the fire with larger cuts of wood, and within another ten minutes they have fish and yams cooking over the fire. Iruka sits, and Kakashi sits next to him, close enough that if either of them moved their legs they would be touching.

“You are awfully quiet,” Kakashi says.

Iruka sighs, rocks back and doesn’t look at him, instead stares at the sky past the trees they are under. “I used to do this with my parents,” he says after a few moments. Kakashi can’t place his expression; exhaustion, nostalgia, something else. “It just. Feels weird.”

Kakashi stays quiet. Iruka hardly ever talks about his parents; it would feel wrong to intrude on what he’s said.

“A long time ago,” Iruka shakes his head, doesn’t complain when Kakashi scoots closer. He changes the topic, and while Kakashi is a little disappointed he also knows it’s not his place. “The fish should be done.”

They are done; the yams take longer, but holy  _ shit _ Kakashi is not expecting them to be as good as they are. Iruka is not so quietly laughing at him when he voices that opinion. Whatever, the Land of Fire doesn’t really have a full-blown winter and there is rarely the opportunity to have street foods like yaki-imo.

“I don’t remember much about my hometown, but winter was long,” Iruka snorts a little, gives in to the puppy-dog eyes and hands Kakashi the remaining quarter of his own yam, “I think there were a lot of oden shops? I know there were a lot of yaki-imo carts, at least.”

“How old were you?” Kakashi asks, very unceremoniously shoving the yam into his mouth. 

“Three, maybe four?” judging from his tone, Iruka doesn’t actually know, “I do remember the city; it was bigger than Konoha. My dad was convinced I would get lost if I ever left our apartment, he used to put me on a leash when we went out.”

Kakashi doesn’t even have to pretend to be confused as hell. The incredulous look he gives Iruka is met with a sheepish laugh, “I mean, it was a port city, and there were a lot of crime problems. Lot of kidnappings.”

“A leash?” he does feel obligated to ask, though he immediately follows up with, “Why’d your family come here?” because if Iruka has decided to talk to him he’s going to take the chance to get more information. 

“Yeah, I mean, it was more like a harness, apparently I liked to run away a lot?” Iruka shrugs, pauses for a few moments before addressing the second question. “My mom was forced to retire as a shinobi when she had me; I think she wanted to return to that. And there was always conflict in the Land of Water then, they didn’t want me to grow up in that.”

Kakashi can understand that; he’s been to the Land of Water several times on missions and it’s still sort of a hell-hole, despite the new Mizukage and everything. “That didn’t really work out too well,” he says before he can stop himself, and the moment of guilt he feels gives way to relief when Iruka snorts.

“Yeah, they didn’t expect for a lot of things to happen,” his voice is quieter, and he looks up at the sky.

_ Good job, Kakashi, _ he tells himself,  _ way to murder the mood _ . Trying to come up with some way to change topics or lighten the mood--great, social situations are his  _ worst _ \--he leans forward to add some more branches to the fire.

Looking back, that’s when it happens. He must knock some embers out the other side of the ring of stone without realizing it, because when Iruka looks down from the sky to the fire his eyes widen in panic.

“Fire,” he says, points, and the obvious that Kakashi was going to say dies when he actually tears his gaze away from Iruka and sees that their modest little campfire has increased in size exponentially. And, more importantly, increased far outside of the rock-bowl it had been built in.

“Fuck,” Kakashi faintly replies, grabs Iruka and flickers them both away from the still-growing fire before he’s really aware of what he’s doing.

“Kakashi! No!” Iruka half-yells when they’re more or less fifty meters away from the column of smoke. That does make Kakashi stop and realize what he’s doing and done. 

“Great, you started a forest fire,” the words are said in a tone teetering between absolute despair and sheer laughter. Kakashi eyes Iruka with what he hopes is an annoyed look, but that just makes Iruka  _ start  _ laughing. “The Hokage’s going to kill us,” he says, between snorts.

“Kill  _ me _ , more like,” Kakashi says, feeling absolutely mortified.

“Don’t worry, I know that downpour technique that helped us put out the fires down south last year,” Iruka is still laughing as he speaks, “I can deal with this.”

Though Kakashi is supposed to be the prodigy of prodigies, the Copy Nin of Konoha, he is more than happy to let Iruka douse the almost-wildfire that he started. God, the embarrassment he feels is enough to eclipse anything he has ever felt before in his life. Maybe if he just threw himself off a cliff Iruka would forget about him and all of this.

It’s only a few minutes before Iruka returns, looking a mix of slightly damp and singed. “It’s out,” he says, tugs his hair out of its elastic, frowns as he inspects the ends of his hair, “I saved your butt, and my hair got burnt.”

“I owe you,” Kakashi says, and he  _ means _ it. If Hiruzen ever found out that he nearly set the forest surrounding Konoha on fire he would be dead, Anbu captain or no.

“Yes, you do,” Iruka says, arching an eyebrow. He leaves his hair down, turns in the direction of Konoha, “We should probably head back.”

So they do, and because Kakashi is not the best at solving things with common sense or properly thanking people, he follows Iruka like an imprinted puppy back to his small apartment. Somewhere along that path, he finds himself with a pair of scissors and Iruka’s implicit trust to not destroy his hair further.

“I put up with a lot for you,” Iruka says while Kakashi trims his hair. “Admittedly, the food was good.” Kakashi doesn’t know if he should be offended or amused. “Maybe we should stick to staying in town.”

“That can be arranged,” Kakashi says after a rather hefty sigh. Staying in Konoha means that Gai is more liable to find him. But he’s very quickly finding that Iruka is worth the risk. “Thank you,” he adds, after finishing with the scissors.

“For what? Putting out the fire?”

Kakashi shrugs, “For being here.”

“And people say  _ I’m _ a sap,” Iruka mutters, shakes his hair out. “C’mere.”

Kakashi does as asked, sets the scissors down and feels sort of stupid with how his heart seems to be yo-yoing all over his chest. They’ve known each other for over a year at this point, he shouldn’t feel so off-kilter whenever Iruka talks to him. Well, maybe it’s for good reason. Iruka wraps him in a hug, the kind of hug that grandmothers give that feels like you’re being smothered in the best sort of way.

“Thank you,” he says again, and lets Iruka hug him.


End file.
